Clio’s GM Canada tells Canadian Lawyer the company will launch an accounting tool before the year’s end
Roughly a month after Clio announced its acquisition of Jurisage, the legal tech and data company that operated a significant database of Canadian case law, the Burnaby, British Columbia-based legal artificial intelligence company is officially making its first foray into legal research.
Clio Work, the new legal research function, is grounded in the 470,000-plus Canadian cases housed in the Jurisage database, which is updated daily. The product works in conjunction with Clio Manage, the company’s practice management software.
“Historically, Clio has always operated in the business of law,” says Luke Slan, Clio’s general manager of Canada. “We help you manage your firm in terms of generating time, running invoices, collecting payments, managing your documents.
“Clio Work is our first foray into the practice of law. What do lawyers actually do day-to-day? They review documents, they summarize documents, they write motions, they do legal research, they prepare for court,” Slan says. “So it’s bringing these together in one unified platform, which is something that no one else can claim in Canada today.”
The launch comes as the company prepares to launch Clio Accounting in Canada, which will be available to customers before the end of the year, Slan tells Canadian Lawyer. With the accounting function, which is already available in the US, Clio’s suite of products will allow “lawyers, administrators, bookkeepers to operate in one platform and have everything from their time, billing, invoicing to accounts payable and chart of accounts all in one platform,” Slan says.
Clio Work launched in the US last fall, roughly a month before it closed its acquisition of Barcelona-born company vLex in a US$1 billion deal – reportedly the largest acquisition in legal tech history. vLex held a vast legal database that expanded to encompass more than one billion legal documents from 180 countries when it acquired legal tech company Fastcase in 2023.
Clio acquired Jurisage for an undisclosed amount in June.
Slan says Canadian customers can expect further developments from Clio soon. “We can’t wait to share with customers and with the Canadian legal community,” he says. “We’re super excited to bring [Clio Work] to market and to hear the feedback and ultimately to improve outcomes for not just lawyers, but all the people they serve.”
